For the first time in 25 years, Alabama voters on Tuesday night sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.
Doug Jones won the special election to fill the Senate seat Jeff Sessions left vacant after stepping down as senator nine months ago to become President Donald Trump’s attorney general. Jones beat Republican candidate Roy Moore, the conservative former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who faced serious accusations of sexual misconduct.
Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday night celebrated Jones’ victory, congratulating the former prosecutor on a smart and determined campaign.
“Doug Jones will be an outstanding senator who will represent Alabama well. He was a great candidate and will be an even better senator. Roy Moore was an awful candidate and never should have gotten to the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.
Schumer’s colleagues in Congress piled on.